Embodiments of the disclosed technology relate to an array substrate, a manufacturing method thereof and an active display.
An electronic paper display is a display device having the advantages of both the display and the paper such as flexible displaying, portability, being erasable, low power consumption and the like, and it has a displaying performance close to papers.
Active electronic paper displays mainly each comprise an upper substrate, an electronic ink layer (displaying medium) and a lower substrate. Most of the active electronic paper displays are reflection type displayers which do not need backlight and display images by reflecting the environmental light source. Generally, a common electrode is formed on the upper substrate, and the lower substrate is an array substrate providing an active driving for the electronic paper devices. Because the active electronic paper displayers do not need backlight, the array substrate can be designed as a reflection type. A typical structure of the array substrate in the prior art comprises a base substrate, data lines and gate lines which are formed on the base substrate and crossed with each other so defined a plurality of pixel units arranged in a matrix. Each of the pixel units comprises a thin film transistor (TFT) switch and a pixel electrode. The TFT switch comprises a gate electrode, a source electrode, a drain electrode and an active layer. The gate electrode is connected with a corresponding gate line, the source electrode is connected with a corresponding data line, and the drain electrode is connected with the pixel electrode. The active layer is formed between the source/drain electrodes and the gate electrode. Generally, a common electrode line for supplying a common voltage to the common electrode is provided on the base substrate.
The conductive patterns on the current array substrate are generally made by a 5-Mask or a 4-Mask process, which is disadvantage due to complex manufacturing procedures and high cost. In addition, a certain electric field is formed between the data lines, the gate lines, the TFT switch and the displaying medium, and the electric filed can influence the displaying medium above the data lines, the gate lines and the TFT switch. For example, the upper substrate of the active electronic paper display is not provided with a black matrix, and the data lines, gate lines and the TFT switch exert an obvious interference on the displaying medium thereon, which reduces the displaying quality.